30 July 2015

I'm generally not
too keen in replicating meat eaters' favourites as veggie versions,
but sometimes I do try to create such dishes. This time I made
vegetarian hot dogs, aka veggie dogs, with cheese, spices and a
homemade tomato sauce. I can't imagine that a meat version could ever
be better than this and I can only wish that some meat eaters would
admit that. Of course I personally think that meat never improves
things. However I must confess that I have never eaten a hot dog in
my life! You might be shocked by this, but it has just been that way,
as I already was a vegetarian when such dishes would've been
available to me. They are not very typical food in Finland in the
countryside. So I'm not sure how authentic today's recipe is, but
then again, I'm sure that these were pretty good what comes to veggie
dogs. Do you have any experiences with vegetarian hot dogs?

Make the tomato
sauce first. Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in olive
oil. Add the tomatoes and let simmer. Season with fresh oregano,
tomato purée, salt and pepper. Finally purée it all into a smooth
sauce.

Fry the vegetarian
sausages in the vegetable oil until golden brown. Towards the end,
add a sprinkle of the smoky firepit rub and toss the sausages in the
pan.

Make a cut into
the submarine roll and place the sausage into the roll. Put some
grated cheese and chilli flakes on the top.

Bake in the oven
at 200 C until the cheese has melted.

Put the fried
onions on the top and serve the veggie dog with the tomato sauce
(warm or cold depending on preference).

29 July 2015

I have been making
vegan stir frys incredibly often this year. Today is one of those
days. Now that I'm more confident with the spicing, it's an easy
weekday meal to make after work and take for next day's lunch. It's a
lovely and light, but filling meal and I've really grown to love
these spices. For this one I had sprouted some mung bean and radish
sprouts again. Have a look how easy it can be!

Ingredients

250 g hazelnut
tofu

2 tbsp groundnut
oil

1 red bell pepper

1 red chilli

1 shallot

3 garlic cloves

1 cm ginger
(similar amount to garlic)

1 cup mung bean
sprouts + radish sprouts

100 g buckwheat
noodles

2 tbsp sesame oil

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp Shaoxing
rice wine

Method

Chop the tofu into
small cubes and fry them in groundnut oil until firm and golden
brown.

Chop the bell
pepper into thin slices and separately fry the slices on a pan for a
few minutes.

Chop chilli,
shallot, garlic and ginger finely.

Cook the noodles
in water al dente and set to side.

Start cooking the
shallot and then chilli, garlic and ginger in groundnut oil.

Add the sesame
oil, soy sauce and Shaoxing rice wine to taste.

Then add the
noodles, peppers and tofu and cook for a couple of minutes together
and check the spicing.

26 July 2015

A week ago on
Sunday I declared the upcoming week to a tomato themed week on my
blog. I have utterly enjoyed eating tomatoes, cooking tomatoes and
even drinking tomatoes (the drinking part comes today in the form of
a tomato cordial cocktail) during The VegHog's Tomato Festival,
and of course writing about the recipes and taking photos. I hope
that you have also liked my posts during this week. I must say that
I'm still not sick of tomatoes at the end of this, amazing!

So, now to the
final tomato post in this series. This unusual cocktail idea was
inspired by the vibrant tomato cordial made by The Tomato Stall,
which I recently purchased. The products from The Tomato Stall have
come up a few times during the week, but it's just because I happen
to like them. This is not a collaboration in any way.

I used these
ingredients for my cocktail:

Tomato cordial

Sparkling water

Gin

Fresh basil

Tomatoes

I more or less
poured the ingredients into a jug based on a gut feeling. The end
result was very tasty and interesting. It was very refreshing and
perfect for a summer's day.

25 July 2015

Good morning!
Saturday mornings are pretty much my favourite times. The weekend has
just begun and there is no rush anywhere, at least today there isn't.
I decided to enjoy a nice savoury breakfast before probably going to
the shops to hog some more veg. I wanted to use tomatoes again, as
it's The VegHog's Tomato Festivaland so I made these filled
croissants with smoky tomatoes and cheese.

Ingredients

Ready made
croissant dough for 6 croissants

6-8 oak smoked
tomatoes

Fresh basil

1 fresh tomato

Salt & gound
black pepper

Mature Cheddar

Method

Roll out the dough
and cut triangles from it. Or be as lazy as I am and buy the
ready-rolled and pre-cut dough. Then the making goes really fast!

24 July 2015

The VegHog's Tomato Festival is going strong and I'm still very much a fan of
the humble tomato. I think that I will continue with this theme until
Sunday, so feel free to share your vegetarian or vegan tomato recipes
as well, if you like!

What I cooked this
time, is a roasted heirloom tomato and baby pepper soup. It is a bit
of an extra effort roasting the tomatoes and peppers first, but in
the end there's a reward in the taste. The soup itself is vegan and I
liked it very much. Have a look below at how I made it.

Ingredients

400 g selection of
heirloom tomatoes

200 g baby peppers

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp vegetable
stock powder

Fresh basil leaves

Ground black
pepper

Salt

Method

Cut the peppers in
halves or smaller pieces and remove the seeds. Brush the tomatoes and
cut peppers with olive oil and roast them in the oven.

Finely chop the
red onion and garlic. Once the vegetables are roasted, start cooking
the onion and garlic in a saucepan until they are soft. Then add the
roasted vegetables and break them slightly with a ladle.

Add the vegetable
stock powder to the pan and let simmer under the lid. Season with
salt, pepper and fresh basil and purée the soup. I left a few chunks
in there, as I found that to be a more interesting solution. You can
add little water, if you want a more liquid soup. My soup could have
been used as a dip or a sauce as well, as it turned out to be quite
thick. It was very filling though, just a suitable summer soup.

Enjoy the soup
warm and you can also serve my weird toasts with green topping with
it, although the photos didn't quite capture the colour correctly.
For the toasts, I ground basil and garlic with mortar and pestle and
then added grated mozzarella to them. I toasted some super seeded
toast and cut them into smaller pieces, put the cheese mix on the top
and baked them in the oven until the cheese had melted. That explains
the pale green topping.

I'm
sharing this recipe with Vegetable Palettevegetarian
cooking challenge by Shaheen from A2K – A Seasonal Veg Table. The theme for this
month's challenge is Glorious reds and I think that this tomato and
pepper soup meets the brief pretty well.

23 July 2015

I hope that you are having a nice week. I'm starting to feel more hopeful, as it's already Thursday, can't wait for the weekend to begin!

Today I took a look into
my blog archives and collected some of my past tomato recipes
together in this post, as I am celebrating The VegHog's Tomato Festival this week. There are still a few more new recipes to come as well.

So here are 12 of some of my favourite tomato
recipes. I love it how versatile tomatoes are, I hope you'll like
this compilation.

Tomato Focaccia– A beautiful homemade focaccia recipe inspired by the Forest Feast
vegetarian cookbook and so easy to make.

Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese – A pasta classic, which is very tasty as
the vegetarian version made with loads of tomatoes, meat-free mince
and baby button mushrooms.

Fried heirloom tomato pizza – Pizza with spelt crust and a new method of pizza
making, first pan-fried then baked under the grill in the oven. Nice
with quality heirloom tomatoes.

Tomato and basil risotto – This is a summery, succulent and light risotto
and a bit different to the ones that I would usually make.

Rye Bruschetta
– Rye bread, tomato and garlic are a great and filling combination,
wonderful as breakfast or lunch.

Tomato tart
– I quite often make this kind of easy tarts with cheese and
vegetables. When using ready made pastry, they are easy yet tasty
weekday meals or great to take with to a picnic or even to serve at a
small gathering.

Insalata Caprese – Probably the best summer food ever! I have posted
this dish also several times, because it's one of my favourite
classics.

22 July 2015

So my theme week
The VegHog's Tomato Festival is still going on and I'm not
tired of tomatoes yet. I now made smoky red pesto with gnocchi. What
makes it suitable to the theme, are the oak smoked tomatoes that
helped to make the red pesto, and I also served a small tomato and
mozzarella salad on the side. If you are unable to get the oak smoked
tomatoes, the pesto can also be made with sundried tomatoes. If you
then want to add smokiness, using oak smoked Cheddar could help
there. I liked this red pesto very much and will be making it soon
again, it's such a nice change from green pestos. Here is today's
recipe.

Red pesto:

80 g oak smoked
tomatoes + smoked oil (from the tomatoes)

Handful of fresh
basil

50 g pine nuts

30 g grated
vegetarian pasta cheese

1 garlic clove

Other ingredients:

600 g gnocchi

1 large heirloom
tomato

125 g mozzarella

Fresh basil

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Salt

Ground black
pepper

Grated vegetarian
pasta cheese

Method

Make the pesto
first by puréeing the ingredients.

Cook the gnocchi
and chop the salad ingredients.

Dress the salad
and mix the cooked gnocchi with the pesto.

Sprinkle cheese on
the top and serve.

What an easy and
quick weekday meal this is, but I would gladly also eat it on a
weekend.

Who is The VegHog?

A vegetarian hobby cook and urban gardener born in Finland, currently living in Denmark. I try to develop my cooking skills by making a wide variety of veggie dishes, some of them traditional and some new creations. My favourites include veggie burgers, squashes, organic and local produce, cider, spelt, rye, pizzas, pasta dishes, risottos and sea-buckthorn.
Follow theveghog on Instagram and @TheVegHog on Twitter!